Flyer Cleanliness survey: Second rank to Bhopal, civic body braces for first rank

Bhopal: The union government’s cleanliness survey has given second rank to Bhopal after Indore. The BMC officials and leaders took out a rally to celebrate the news. Mayor Alok Sharma, commissioner of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation Priyanka Das, Member of Parliament from Bhopal Alok Sanjar, corporators of the BMC and residents were part of a rally which was taken out from the fire brigade office at fatehgarh to Chowk bajaar on Thursday evening.

Residents and traders of the market garlanded the BMC officials and mayor for the feat. While Mayor Alok Sharma, was busy in celebrations on Thursday he is already gearing up for the next survey. Mayor told Free Press that though the civic body made its efforts to stand first but it lost the rank to Indore. “We will take several initiatives this year to become number one in the next survey,” he added.

Sharma feels that an improvement in civic sense will lead to a cleaner city. He said that with better civic sense among the residents the city will be clean just like they keep their houses clean. He said that we will ensure that the activities like cleaning of the streets continue with the same rigour for the whole year. Many city residents too feel that keeping a city clean is not the sole responsibility of the Municipal Corporation.

Mohammad Iqbal, a shopkeeper at Hamidia road said that the shopkeepers should not dump their waste outside and wait for someone to come and collect it. He said that he and his friends who run shops of juice or tea are using dust bins for dumping their wastes. He said that if there are fixed spots for collection of waste then its disposed becomes easy while scattered waste creates issues.

Reality Check

Many view that the rank achieved by Bhopal in cleanliness survey does not give the real picture of the situation on ground. Social worker Ajay Patidar said that the in reality situation of the cleanliness is different from what has been projected. He questioned the authenticity of the survey and said that there are cities which are far cleaner than Bhopal but are nowhere close to Bhopal or Indore in the cleanliness survey of the current year.

Debt and real issues ignored

Leader of opposition Mohammad Sageer said that the way Mayor of Bhopal is spending money on his publicity has left the BMC under a debt of Rs 38 thousand crore. He said that the city has different issues which are overlooked by him and he is busy celebrating the second rank in the cleanliness survey as he has least concern for the real issues. He said that the BMC has limited source of income and that the civic chief is spending money as per his will which will affect the health of the civic body.